Antithesis
by Nicole Sabatti
Summary: Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Tokyo cause a tornado in Idaho? Or to be more precise, what would the world really be like without Tuxedo Kamen?
1. Readme

Disclaimer: Sailormoon is the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation and a load of others I probably don't know about, and as always, I make no claim to it whatsoever. The work which follows is intended for enjoyment only, and I will not use it for any commercial purposes, nor make any money from it. The fic itself, however, is copyrighted by me, as are any characters created by me for the purposes of this fic. Any use without my permission is therefore prohibited.  
  
Rating: Rated R for scenes of violence and themes of torture.  
  
Author's Notes: Now that I've got the general housekeeping out of the way, let's get on with the heavy stuff, for want of a better phrase. This fic has been a project of mine since the summer of 2000, when the world of Sailormoon, and anime in general, was still fairly new to me. Over the years, it has undergone many revisions and quite a few fundamental developments in terms of plot and characterisation. Even after all this time, it is still far from finished, but I think it has reached the stage where I'm fairly certain of the direction it's heading in. Besides, if I don't put it up now, there's a strong chance that I never will, and I'm curious to see just how people will react to what is probably my biggest achievement fic-wise ^.^  
  
The only thing left now is to thank those people without whom this fic would not have been possible (how much like an Oscars' speech did that sound?):  
  
The Mathemagician: A lot of the better ideas for this fic were hers. I am in no doubt that without them the quality of the plot would have suffered greatly. I kid you not. And you thought Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! and Sailormoon had nothing in common...  
  
Ice Princess: Or, as she is known on ff.net, Ice Princess2. It was Ice Princess who first introduced me to the world of fan fiction all those years ago, so without a doubt this fic wouldn't have even existed if it hadn't been for her. Since then, she's helped me with so many aspects of this fic, and her advice has been invaluable. She also deserves a hell of a lot of credit for having to listen to me read whole chapters to her over the phone, which can't have been an easy task.  
  
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who bothers to read this fic, that is, if the author's notes haven't put you off :P I gladly welcome your feedback if you have time to spare, and if you leave your e-mail address I'll try my best to get back to you. ASMR readers, please feel free to PM me if you have any comments ^.^  
  
That's it! Enjoy the fic ^.^ 


	2. Prologue

Mamoru was tired. They had been driving for hours with only one stop, but that had been ages ago and he was desperate for the toilet again. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, squirming against the tightness of his seat belt.

            That morning he had been bursting with excitement, it was his sixth birthday and his parents had promised him a whole day of doing whatever he wanted. It had made him feel important, the possibility of making adult decisions was only granted to him on special occasions such as this, yet despite the extensive range of childhood pleasures that lay before him Mamoru was only interested in one.

            Sitting in the driveway next to his house, his father's car had frequently been a source of many of Mamoru's fantasies, and like most boys his age he had been captivated into an almost hypnotic state by the sleek machine and the way the sun gleamed against the paintwork in a kaleidoscope of metallic brilliance.

            From the backseat, as he watched the familiar greys and whites of his neighbourhood, and then the fresh greenery of the countryside, whiz by in a blur of colour as vivid and imaginative as an artist's palette, he could pretend that it was he, and not his father, in the driving seat; that it was his hands caressing the smooth hardness of the steering wheel and easing the car into a higher gear. As they left the city behind them in a spread of urban sprawl with the sun high in the August sky, it seemed like the day would be the epitome of perfection.

            But there was only so long a child's imagination could be occupied by the same thing, and after an hour Mamoru was bored and tired of sitting still for so long.

            His parents were arguing. They kept their voices low out of consideration for him, but enough snippets of their heated exchange made it to his ears for him to know they were lost. It had not seemed important to him at first, they had been lost before; on the way to the theme park, on the way back from visiting his father's friends in Osaka, even on the way back from his grandparent's house, but the hours rolled on until it was dark, and when there was still no sight of the city Mamoru became worried, and began to wonder if they would ever make it home.

            They had been travelling along the same mountain route for as long as Mamoru could remember and the endless twists and turns were making him nauseous, bile swirling around his stomach like laundry in a machine and threatening to erupt from his throat if the road did not become straighter. Perhaps they had taken so many wrong turns reaching home had become impossible, and they were destined to spend eternity travelling the same never-ending stretch of road, their tiny car winding timidly in circles around the mountain's hulk like a living girdle.

   "Mama, I'm tired," Mamoru complained, his head lolling back against his headrest as his stomach groaned uncomfortably.

   "Shh honey, we'll be home soon," his mother tried to comfort him, although her voice sounded distracted and in the wing mirror her eyes reflected only worry.

   "We'd be home even sooner if your mother knew how to navigate," his father muttered, hunched over the wheel in the image of someone who had exhausted both patience and stamina.

   "Darling please…" his wife pleaded wearily.

   "'Please' nothing," he snapped, "you aren't the one who's been driving for three hours straight."

   "That's because there's been nowhere to stop for the past three hours!" his wife retaliated sharply, "we can't just stop in the middle of the highway!"

   "The road's deserted for crying out loud, it's not as if there's anyone behind us!" the sudden rise in the volume of his father's voice startled Mamoru, and he sat up stiffly.

   "If you want to stop, stop," his mother said in exasperation, "just pull over here…"

   "I don't _want_ to pull over," he replied forcefully, "I just want to get home as soon as we can."

   "Darling, not so fast," his wife warned gently, a note of fear in her voice.

            Even from his half-tired state in the backseat Mamoru could feel the car accelerating, the tyres spinning even faster across the tarmac and pushing up a spray of gravel behind them as his father increased the pressure on the foot pedal. He could hear his mother urging her husband to slow down but he did not seem to acknowledge her, and even though he remained in the same hunched position with his eyes fixed firmly ahead his attention did not seem to be on the road.

            The brakes squealed suddenly like the cry of a tortured animal as the next bend came too quickly for his father to recognise, echoing in the sharp night for a painful second of forever, before Mamoru was lost in the confusion of his mother screaming and his father, who almost never swore, cursing wildly as he spun the wheel round and round in his hands. Mamoru was thrown forwards and then to the side as the car swerved in a full circle like a maniacal merry-go-round, and as his seat belt cut into his stomach he had the urge to throw up and scream and cry at the same time.

            The car smashed through a metal barrier as if it were paper, leaving it twisted and warped like a diseased bone at the side of the road as gravity pulled greedily at the vehicle, dragging it down through the dark sky. Through eyes wide with terror and fear Mamoru was aware of the headlights picking out the vague grey ghosts of scrub-like trees and anorexic plant life as he hung suspended on the narrow sling of his seat belt, dangling like a broken marionette.

            His head felt heavy and his ears were dull with the sound of blood rushing past his brain, and as the nose of the car crumpled into broken rocks and mountain debris in a waste of metal and broken glass, the stench of burning rubber and blood and petrol filled his nostrils like a sickly cocktail. He had just enough time to remember his parents, for as they tumbled through the air in their bizarre acrobatic display his own desperate desire for survival had consumed him and he had forgotten them, and to remember the reason why they were here.

   _It's my birthday…_

   And then, everything stopped, and as the car exploded in a hail of steel and glass and rubber, and the air filled with the smell of petrol and fire, it was if he had never existed.


	3. Genealogy

Aino Minako ran. It wasn't easy, her feet slipped and slid over the rain-slicked streets and the wind whipped fiercely at her hair, throwing sodden blonde clumps of it into her face, so that every so often she had to tear it away from her eyes to avoid running headlong into a wall. Or worse. But she kept on running. She didn't really have a choice, if she stopped now it was all over. Then again, maybe it already was. 

She had lost sight of the Patrol over ten minutes ago, but she knew that meant nothing. They had other ways of finding her. Up ahead, Artemis darted in and out of the Tokyo back alleys, clearing piles of dirty rags and mounds of human rubbish with ease, forgetting that his human charge was not nearly so nimble, nor so used to the stench of the more squalid areas of the city. 

She resisted the urge to ask him how much further they had to go; as he had told her countless times before, they would get there when they got there. In the meantime, she had no choice but to trust that he knew where he was going. Not that she had ever had reason to doubt him before, and now more than ever she was amazed at his knowledge of the city she had liked to believe she knew like the back of her hand, weaving in and out of side streets and back alleys not even she knew existed.

The city was for the most part deserted. Not that it surprised her at that time of night. Only those whose business was worth risking death for ventured onto the streets after dark, and Minako tended to keep her distance from those sorts of people, although she doubted whether it would make a difference anymore.

Behind her, plumes of grey-black smoke rose into the air as the safehouse burned, oblivious to the rain soaking the rest of the Tokyo Sector of the Fourth Quarter. Noriko was dead, the others the same way or otherwise scattered throughout the city, perhaps running as she was now, scared, hunted. And Yoshiko…Inwardly, Minako shuddered. It was probably best not to think about it. Even now, she still couldn't believe she had failed to notice something like that. Then again, she hadn't exactly been paying attention to much over the past couple of months. Luna was right, her powers of observation were slipping.

A distant shriek cut through the air like breaking glass, and she heard Artemis hiss the dreaded word under his breath. Minako willed her body to run faster, even though her lungs roared with agony and her muscles burnt with the fire of exhaustion. She didn't need Artemis to tell her that if they had sent the youma after her she was as good as dead already. Perhaps given the circumstances, that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

Unwillingly, she pictured Yoshiko's face, twisting, contorting, and felt the prickle of goose bumps on her skin in addition to the frigid rain soaking through her clothing. There was no time for regrets now, no point in replaying the scene over and over as if trying to mentally erase it from the timeline and go back to the way things were. She had let herself be seen, and that was that. Now that the enemy knew there was a Senshi running loose, no hiding place would be safe. She doubted whether even the Resistance would risk harbouring such a liability.

She skidded to a halt suddenly, her heart stopping in her chest as a sharp white light cut directly across their pathway, stripping the narrow street of its darkness and casting a band of crude colour over a small section of urban decay.

   "They've found us!" she gasped, sweaty palm pressed against her henshin pen.

   "We're not done for yet!" Artemis hissed through gritted teeth, his tail erect and his fur on end.

            But the search beacon passed them by, the wail of the siren that would have otherwise signalled their discovery silent, until the next time.

   "Come on," Artemis growled as he took up flight once more, "let's keep going."

            Minako followed his instruction, not even pausing to question his order. In four years of occupation he had been her only companion, and had been the one who motivated her when all had seemed lost, when their search had not only seemed futile, but foolish, until he too had just given up. She hadn't questioned him then, either, but had resigned herself to other tasks which had gradually consumed all of her attention. Such as staying alive, for instance. Besides, she could see his point. Given current circumstances, Tokyo was not the place to go looking for trouble, regardless of what Luna liked to think.

            Besides, what did Luna know? Where had she been when they needed her? Where had she been four years ago? But Minako knew that wasn't fair. None of this was Luna's fault, she had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now, when everything was falling down around their ears, she was the only one they could turn to. Of course, there was the possibility that she wouldn't be there, that she had believed them when they said they had wanted no more part in it, and that they had wasted the only opportunity they were going to get.

            But Minako refused to believe that was going to happen. She had put her faith in Artemis; after all, he had never let her down before. Luna was going to be there, and there was no point in thinking what would happen if she wasn't. The youma shrieked again, and Minako shuddered. There was more at stake than she wanted to believe.

********

It had been almost four years since they had last visited the Crown Arcade, but in all that time it hadn't really changed. Compared with its surroundings, it was in relatively good condition, and bore very few scars from the anarchy that had descended on the city in the weeks before the Dark Kingdom invasion. Sure, the glass-fronted doors were jet-black with a layer of thick grime, the panes crusted over with a network of sooty spiders' webs and the lettering cracked and peeling, but underneath all the dirt and neglect, it was still the same old Crown. At least some things never seemed to change. 

Minako felt a strange twinge in her chest as a feeling of familiarity, tinged with a strong yearning for the past, washed over her. In the early days of the occupation, she and Artemis had used the arcade as a base as they had tried desperately to contact Luna and the other Senshi, although they had seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth, leaving the two of them as the last line of defence against the Dark Kingdom onslaught.

   _Some defence we were,_ Minako thought bitterly as she surveyed the dead mass of the former Jubancho shopping district and, just beyond it, the dark hulk of the compound.

            What scant moonlight there was did little to alleviate the depressing sight, and the driving rain merely added to the heavy atmosphere. There was no sound save the wind, as it howled in and out of windows long emptied of glass, sending eddies of dry dust that had perhaps lain there since the early days of the occupation spiralling into the air. A pair of faded mauve curtains billowed miserably from one of them, slapping against the frame with a pathetic squelch as rainwater slowly saturated the once gaudy fabric.

            Once the bustling hive of the Juban district of Tokyo, the street was now deserted, eventually abandoned by even the looters once they realised there was nothing left for them to take. Nobody went there now, it was too close to the compound for one thing, and people went out of their way to avoid passing through it, going so far as to take routes that doubled their journey time if they had to.

            A sudden movement caught Minako's eye, a flicker of orange light at the top floor window of a building down the street. She tensed, watching for any sign that they had been spotted.

   "It's probably the Resistance, lighting a signal fire," Artemis said in a low voice as he followed her gaze.

   "Isn't that a bit risky here, even for them?"

   "A tramp, then, trying to keep warm. Come on, we haven't got time to be loitering around."

            He bounded across the street without another word, and Minako followed him with almost the same level of stealth. Four years of dodging the Patrol had given her plenty of practice in making herself virtually invisible when the need arose.

            A sign had been pinned to the front of the arcade: 'Closed until further notice', and it seemed as though someone had tried to force the doors open and had given up halfway, as if realising their efforts were in vain. Artemis slipped easily through the open gap between the doors, but Minako was not nearly so flexible, nor so thin. As she tried to wriggle her way through the narrow gap, one of the doors gave way to her weight, squealing in protest as she half tumbled through the opening.

            For a moment she stood on the threshold as her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the interior. Rows of arcade machines stood silently in the dark like a parade of sombre troops preparing for inspection, their smashed screens leering at her with yawning maws. Coils of exposed cable snaked a pathway through the four years worth of dust that coated the floor, ending in an explosion of live wire and shredded plastic. It seemed the arcade had not escaped the ravages of the pre-invasion panic after all, and as Minako stepped over the remains of a broken stool, she couldn't help but feel sad at the realisation that yet another memory had been destroyed. 

            The moonlight silhouetted the only machine that still seemed to be intact, although she doubted it was still operational. Ironically, it was the _Sailor V_ game, and she was just about able to make out her own smiling image, immortalised in paint on the side. If only she had known then…

   "Good of you to come. Although, given tonight's turn of events, I'm not exactly surprised to see you."

            Minako jumped, so transfixed by the sight of the videogame that she had failed to notice Luna, perched atop the stool in front of the machine and almost invisible in the dark. She looked at them with what might have been an expression of smugness, as if waiting for some sort of apology.

   "Okay, Luna, so you were right," Artemis said finally, his voice impatient yet resigned, "we're ready to listen. So talk."

   "Not so fast. First, you tell me how you got here," she paused, looking directly at Artemis, "the girl, Yoshiko?"

   He nodded, lowering his head.

   "I thought as much. Shame on you, Artemis," she scolded, "a aura that strong you should have picked up straightaway. You _are_ getting sloppy."

   Artemis looked at her incredulously. "You knew? You _knew_? For gods' sake Luna, why didn't you say anything? Do you have any idea what we went through out there tonight?"

   "Oh, I have more than an idea," she retorted, all trace of smugness gone, "I was there four years ago, remember? What happened tonight was child's play compared to what we had to face back then."

   "I'm well aware of what happened, Luna. We were there, too, in case you've forgotten, so don't act as though you're the only one who had to deal with it!"

   "Stop it!" Minako interrupted, just as Luna was about to reply, "bickering about it now isn't going to solve anything. The enemy can't be far behind us, and unless we figure out exactly why we're in this mess in the first place we don't stand a chance!"

   "Minako-chan's right," Artemis conceded. For a moment he said nothing, staring at the pattern his paw prints had left in the dust on the floor. "Four years, Luna," he said finally, "four years, and not so much as a word. What happened?"

   "First, you tell me your side," she said, quietly but stubbornly, "from the beginning."

********

The word safehouse was a misleading word at best. Given current circumstances, nowhere was safe anymore, much less a rundown building with no electricity and locks that a child could have picked, let alone a youma with the strength to blow the whole door off and take half the house with it. But they were all the residents of Tokyo had, and no matter how filthy, how neglected, and how decrepit, they were better, and infinitely safer, than sleeping on the streets. 

            Minako was lucky in the sense that Murakami Noriko was more paranoid than most about whom she admitted to her own particular nest, although, as things turned out, she was not nearly paranoid enough. In return for a bed and the security of numbers the safehouse supposedly guaranteed, residents were expected to comply with a series of strict but easily enforceable rules, or risk being evicted.

            There were, of course, those who thought they could bend the rules to suit their own personal whims, but Noriko was not the sort of woman to get on the wrong side of, and more than once Minako had awoken in the middle of the night to the sound of a blazing row. The incident the previous night had been no exception, and although Minako was more than used to the noise to be able to drift back off to sleep again, that particular time Noriko had seemed more irate than usual, which for her was some achievement.

   "I don't care where you found it, get rid of it!"

   "But Noriko-san…" 

Minako recognised the voice as belonging to Watanabe Yosiko, a young girl of about 14 who had arrived at the safehouse around two weeks ago. Her background was a mystery, but that in itself was not unusual. Besides, she was polite enough, and so quiet she seemed to blend into the wallpaper without so much as a second glance. The perfect resident, as it was.

   "Don't 'but' me! You know the rules; no animals, and what do you suppose a cat is, hmm?"

            Minako wasn't able to catch Yoshiko's reply as she bolted upright, the rusted springs in her cot protesting at the sudden movement and a cold sweat breaking out along her spine. Her heart thudded noisily against her sternum, and with a trembling hand she threw her one moth-eaten blanket to the side, not even aware of the coldness of the floor as her feet hit it with a muffled thump. Her whole body shook as she darted to the door of the tiny box room, not even hesitating to throw some clothes over her thin nightshirt despite the chill in the air.

            Her head was filled with only one thought; Artemis had been discovered, and once Noriko found out he was hers, she was homeless again. And being homeless in Tokyo was not a desirable prospect, especially since people had started disappearing. Disappearances had become something of a commonplace occurrence since the occupation, and people rarely batted an eyelid if a neighbour went missing, or a fellow lodger failed to return for the night. They merely shrugged their shoulders and went about their daily business as always, and the following morning the 'To Let' sign appeared in the window again.

            Besides, those who disappeared were usually involved in some dubious activity or another, and so more often than not it was their own fault if they were hauled off to the compound. What happened to them once they got there was a mystery nobody cared enough to solve, for no one had ever left the compound once they were inside. All they knew was it was something to do with energy, but then again, everything the enemy did was something to do with energy.

            But recently, people had started to disappear more often, and rumours abounded of safehouses that had been broken into, the occupants vanished with no hint or clue as to where they had gone, or the fact that they had even existed in the first place. No Patrol had ever done _that_ before, at least, none that Minako knew of. Still, rumours though they may have been, they were enough to keep her inside after dark, and although initially Artemis had been more than happy to do the same, eventually his instinct had got the better of him.

            Tired of having to hide in the cramped space under the cot every time there was so much as a whisper from beyond the bedroom door, he had started to sneak out after dark, secretly at first, and then, after Minako caught him on one occasion, on the assurance that he would stay low and keep out of trouble. She had been angry with him at first, but there were so many more places a cat could go that a human couldn't, and if they wanted to stay alive they had to make sure they stayed one step ahead of the enemy, no matter what it took.

            But it seemed Artemis had been less than careful, and as Minako threw open the flimsy door with such force the whole house shook, she half expected to see an enraged Noriko holding the white cat by the scruff of his neck, a sheepish expression on his face. There was no such scene however, and instead she found herself looking at Noriko towering above poor Yoshiko, who was clutching the offending animal protectively to her chest, although she was no less enraged. At the sight of Minako she looked up sharply, flashing a hurricane lamp in her face and half blinding her.

   "Well?" she hissed, as Minako threw her hands to her eyes to shield them from the sudden glare, "what do you want?"

            Dwarfed by the tent-like nightshirt hanging over her elfin frame, Murakami Noriko was nevertheless an imposing sight. Her reputation was well known in the surrounding area and indeed beyond, and there were rumours she was involved with some of the more active Resistance groups, and if there was one crime that could guarantee the attention of the Patrol, it was involvement with the Resistance. If she was not so desperate for somewhere to stay, that in itself would have been enough for Minako to keep her distance; if there was one thing she did not need, it was the Patrol breathing down her neck.

   "I'm waiting," Noriko said impatiently.

            Minako swallowed dryly. Now she was actually standing in the hallway, with Noriko's eyes boring into her and the light of the hurricane lamp burning her retinas, she could think of nothing to say. Yoshiko, however, solved that problem for her.

   "We can't just throw it onto the streets, that would be cruel!" she whined, cradling the animal in her arms and fixing Noriko with a pleading stare.

   "I'm sure you could keep it company," Noriko replied icily, to which the girl squeaked in terror. The cat started to meow, as if adding its own protests.

            Minako glanced at it, almost as if by accident, hoping that if it was Artemis he knew what trouble he was getting her into. But it was a pair of brown eyes that blinked back at her, not blue, and the cat's fur was black, not white. It wasn't Artemis. But even before the relief had time to sink in, there was something else about the animal that she noticed. A crescent moon bald spot. It had a crescent moon bald spot, just like Artemis. Minako couldn't help but feel puzzled; as far as she knew, Artemis was the only animal with such unusual markings. Unless…

            Oh gods, it couldn't be! She resisted the urge to cry out, and stifled the noise by placing her hands over her mouth as she stared at the cat. It blinked again, slowly, deliberately, as if to confirm Minako's suspicions, and she knew then that she was looking directly into the eyes of Luna, Artemis' fellow guardian and former advisor to the late Queen Serenity. Luna, who had disappeared four years ago and who they had presumed dead, along with the other Senshi. And if she was alive, then maybe…

   "Look, Noriko-san, let me keep in my room, just for tonight," she tried to plead with the woman, although whether or not it would do any good was another matter, "I'll get rid of it first thing tomorrow, I promise."

   But Noriko didn't seem convinced. "You know the rules as well as she does," she said, nodding towards Yoshiko, "it goes now, or the pair of you go with it."

   "I know, I know, but just this once. It won't happen again, I promise!"

   "I said 'no'."

   "But if we let it out now, it's going to cause all sorts of commotion! And you know what the Patrol are like…"

            It was a poor attempt, but Noriko looked as though she was seriously considering it, pursing her lips as if deep in thought.

   "Just for tonight," she said finally, "but I warn you, if it's still here by the time I get up, you're both out. Got it?" she added sharply, flashing her hurricane lamp at the pair of them, the tiny candle flickering with the sudden movement.

   "Hai, Noriko-san," Minako bowed, and Yoshiko followed suit, "arigatou gozaimasu."

            Noriko nodded at them, her way of bidding them good-night, before vanishing down the hallway, the light bobbing up and down in partnership with the rhythm of her footsteps.

   "Arigatou, Minako-san," Yoshiko's voice floated out of the darkness, making her jump.

            The girl looked at her expectantly, holding out her arms as if presenting her with an offering, and as Minako reached forward to take Luna, she smiled at her with a flash of white teeth. It was only afterwards that Minako remembered how cold her skin had been, how clammy to the touch it was, and how unusually sharp her teeth had been, but by then, of course, it was already too late.

            She waited until Yoshiko, too, vanished into the shadows before returning to her own room, not even wanting to risk uttering a single word until she was certain the door was shut firmly behind her. The first thing she noticed upon entering, however, was that the room was unusually cold, even more so than when she had left it little more than ten minutes ago. At first, she couldn't quite figure out why, until she looked towards the window. It was wide open, the tattered strip of linen that served as a curtain fluttering in the night breeze, even though she could have sworn it had been fully closed when she went to bed that night.

   "Letting your guard down, aren't you, Minako-chan?" 

   "Artemis!" she gasped, as he suddenly emerged from behind the wardrobe, jumping nimbly onto the bed.

   "The same could be said for you, Artemis," Luna spoke quietly, her voice almost a whisper, and at the sound of her voice he looked up, his expression understandable stunned.

   "Luna?" he gaped, eyes widening as he spoke.

            Without warning, she leapt from Minako's arms and onto the floor, her paws connecting soundlessly with the bare boards as she surveyed first Artemis, and then Minako.

   "Well then," she said, eyes wondering between them, taking obvious delight in their identically shocked expressions, "what have you been up to these past four years?"

   "I know that part already," Luna interrupted, "what I want to know is, what happened later, after I left."

   "Gomen ne," Minako bowed apologetically.

            Artemis said nothing, although he was visibly tense, and Minako knew he remembered the conversation that followed as vividly as she did. They had argued, not at first, but as things progressed it became obvious that the two cats were not exactly seeing eye to eye. Luna had wanted them to start the search again, had told them the other Senshi were not dead, as they had thought, but had been captured by the enemy. To Minako, that had been the biggest shock of all, and she had to sit down before it could sink in properly. Not dead? If they were still alive, then maybe that meant they still had a chance!

            Luna had pleaded with them, begged them to join her, and Minako had been more than ready to take her up on her offer, but it had been Artemis who stopped her, Artemis who had said 'no'. They were finished, he told her, no more missions, no more princess, no more battles; the fight was over, the enemy had won. Afterwards, he had told Minako he had never seen Luna so heartbroken, so destitute, but to Minako she had just looked sad. Sad, and more than a little lonely.

   "So be it," Luna had said quietly, jumping onto the window ledge, the curtain billowing around her body, "but if things get any worse, it'll be all your fault this time."

   "How can things get any worse?" Artemis had retorted, but Luna merely leapt through the open window, her black fur blending into the darkness as if she had never been there at all.

            But less than 24 hours later, he and Minako were going to find out just how much worse it could get.

********

   "Do you think we were too hard on her?" Minako asked Artemis the next day as they wandered through Tokyo's urban sprawl.

            It was January, and the sky was heavy and grey with the threat of rain, no doubt a premonition of what was to come later. It was early evening, and over an hour until it began to get dark, yet the streets were already deserted, the rest of the city retreating to the relative safety of their homes in anticipation of nightfall. Every so often, someone would hurry past them, shoulders hunched and collars pulled over their ears, their eyes lowered to the floor, as if eye contact was enough to incriminate them in some imaginary crime.

            Minako, too, wished she was indoors, but she had to eat, and that meant trekking halfway across the city in search of half a loaf of blackened bread and a handful of stale cheese. Rations, as she was more than well aware, were growing scarcer by the day, and she wondered how long it would be before the rest of the city's frustration with the Resistance monopoly over food production escalated into an all-out war. For an organisation that prostituted themselves as the future saviour of the human race, they seemed a little more than antithetical to their claims.

            But her thoughts eventually turned away from the Resistance to the events of the previous night. Both of them had been so stunned at the revelation that Luna was still alive, let alone at the prospect of resuming their crusade against the Dark Kingdom once more, that neither of them had stopped to even consider her feelings. After all, no doubt she had felt some responsibility for the way things had turned out, and four years worth was a lot of guilt to harbour.

   "Luna's a lot tougher than you may think," was Artemis' reply, although even he sounded unconvinced.

   "Do you think she'll come back?"

   "Who knows?" he shrugged, trying to give the impression that he couldn't care less, but Minako knew he was just as concerned as she was. 

            They walked the rest of the way in silence, chewing on the hunks of burnt bread as they went. Their journey took them past the Hikawa Shrine, where an old man dressed in the tattered robes of a Shinto priest often sat begging. Minako usually bowed as she passed, out of respect, not that anyone paid attention to religion anymore, but that day he was gone. Instead, there was a sign nailed to the entrance: 'Access prohibited. Trespassers will be executed on sight. Orders of Jadeite, Strategic Commander of the Fourth Quarter.'

            Minako walked even faster, her eyes to the floor, although she was able to catch sight of a few Dark Kingdom soldiers half-heartedly patrolling the grounds, making their presence known by shouting raucous comments as she passed. She clutched at the henshin pen in her pocket, fingers twitching as she quashed the urge to yank it out and transform then and there. 

            Things had not always been like this, she reminded herself constantly, as if there was a chance that by not doing so she would forget. There had been a time when people had shown respect for the traditions of their ancestors, but that time was past, and the soldiers that defiled the once holy temple were not of this world.

            She hated them all, every last one of them, hated the way she could still sense their arrogant, self-satisfied smirks even after she had rounded a corner and was finally rid of them, hated the way they disrespected the temples and forbid the old teachings just because they contradicted the words of their Queen. But most of all she hated the fact that they could do anything they pleased, could spit in her face, push her to the ground and rob her of every last shred of dignity she had, and she wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. She was powerless. She, a Senshi, and the very thought filled her with disgust.

            She gripped her henshin pen even harder. There were still some things she was capable of. But what good could she do by herself? Sure, she could put pay to a handful of Dark Kingdom troops at the most, but what about the rest of them? What about Jadeite, lording it over everybody in his fortress on the former site of the Imperial Palace? What about Beryl? What about that _thing_, Metallia?

            Luna had three Senshi, and not even that had been enough. If it was, the world would not be in the state it was in now. What hope did Minako have by herself? But even though she hadn't dare admit it Artemis, Luna's visit the previous night had given her hope, even if it had just been a little. If the other three Senshi were alive, perhaps the past four years wouldn't have been in vain after all, perhaps there was still a chance, perhaps…

            They rounded another corner and she stopped suddenly, eyes on a plume of grey smoke that was already curling its way into the darkening sky. An uncomfortable feeling was brewing in the pit of her stomach, one that grew in intensity when she realised its source. Artemis, too, had evidently noticed it, for he had also stopped, his tail twitching with what Minako had learnt to recognise as fear.

   "The safehouse?" she whispered, "but – but Noriko would never let that happen!"

            But they both knew the truth, even then, the same way they knew it would be more than just dangerous to go back there then. But although her every survival instinct told her to stay away, Minako had to know why, even though she feared the worst. She ran towards the smoke, barely evening heeding Artemis' warning. If this had happened because the enemy had found out she was a Senshi…

            A small crowd had gathered outside, even at that late an hour, hovering outside the building like a cloud of moths, intrigued but careful not to get their wings singed. Minako recognised a few of them, neighbours, people she passed everyday on the street, but they all avoided her gaze and refused to answer her questions, and so she pushed her way through them, paying little attention to their shouts of protest. A notice similar to the one at the shrine had been tacked to the front door, but she tore it down, throwing it to the ground without a second thought.

            The fire seemed to originate from somewhere at the back of the house, probably the kitchen, and had not been alight long enough to spread throughout the rest of the building. Minako figured she would have enough time to find Noriko and whoever else was still inside before getting the hell out. Still, as she pushed open the front door, a thin trail of smoke began to snake its way around her ankles, and she had to place her hand over her mouth to protect her lungs from the fumes.

   "Noriko-san!" she called, before she was consumed by a fit of coughing, "Noriko-san!"

            She pushed open the door to the front room, the one place she could bank on finding the missing owner of the safehouse, and all at once it became apparent why the house had been set ablaze. Wooden crates lined the back wall, a few of them burst open, their contents rolling across the floor. Minako picked one up as it came to rest at her feet; a tin of tomatoes, the expiry code on its label dated one year previously. Noriko, it seemed, had been a racketeer, illegally storing canned food from before the occupation right under their very noses, probably to hand over to the Resistance at a later date.

            A noise from the corner nearest the window startled her, and she looked up, the can falling from her hand and rolling into the hallway.

   "Yoshiko-chan!" she exclaimed, "what are you still doing here!"

   The girl stared at her, blinking dumbly.

   Minako gestured wildly at the hallway. "The house is on fire! You have to get out!"

   But Yoshiko merely stood there, silent and smiling eerily.

   "Where's Noriko?" Minako asked, the uncomfortable feeling returning to the pit of her stomach.

   "Gone," the girl replied, "the Patrol took her away." She grinned, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "All gone."

            Minako's blood suddenly chilled, for it was then that she noticed the thin trail of red across her hand, and the rows of needle-sharp teeth lining her otherwise angelic expression.

   "Minako-chan, she's a youma!" Artemis shouted a sudden warning from the doorway, where he had appeared seconds before, as Yoshiko transformed in front of their very eyes, flesh rippling and contorting as her bones tore her body into a new shape.

            Minako screamed as Yoshiko lunged for her, leathered hand clawing for her face as she dodged to the side. But Yoshiko was fast, and as it leapt at Minako again, eyes bulging and teeth snapping as it tried to bite into her flesh, she pulled her henshin pen from her pocket and thrust it into the air.

   "Venus Planet Power, Make-Up!" she cried, and as the pen worked its magic the youma seemed to pause.

   "Senshi!" it spat, although it sounded shocked, surprised, and just a little afraid.

            Sailor Venus fired off her Crescent Beam without hesitation, aiming for the youma's heart, but it was quicker than she had anticipated, and instead the attack connected with its shoulder, unleashing a geyser of green blood that spattered the floor and ceiling. The youma recoiled from the impact of the attack, roaring with pain and clutching at its wound in an attempt to still the flow of blood. Venus lifted her arm, preparing another attack, but a shout from Artemis broke her concentration. 

   "Minako-chan, get out of here, the whole house is about to go up!"

            She glanced towards the door, where clouds of black smoke were already billowing into the room, the first tongues of flame licking greedily at the crates nearest the door as they sought out more fuel. As the youma writhed in pain, Venus picked up the nearest can and hurled it at the window, the cheap glass shattering upon impact. Wind whipped through the opening, and as she scrabbled towards the window the first drops of rain splattered against her skin.

            Outside, commotion reigned, the onlookers scattering at the sight of the spreading flames, although half of them paused as Venus launched herself through the window before landing cat-like on the pavement in front of the house, awestruck by the first Senshi any of them had ever seen. Although none of them quite understood exactly what she was, they nonetheless felt the need to pay her some sort of homage, and started to crowd around her, oblivious to even the fire roaring above their heads. But Venus had no time to be overwhelmed by their reaction, for she knew that her attack on Yoshiko had bought her minutes at most.

   "Minako-chan, we have to get out of here!" Artemis urged as inside, Yoshiko began to stir. 

            Pushing through the crowd once more, Minako de-transformed, knowing she would be harder to detect if she was in civilian form, and then, she fled.

 ********

   "So there you have it," Artemis said quietly.

   "And the youma?" Luna asked.

   Both of them remained silent.

   "I see," she said, a slight hint of disappointment in her voice.

            Minako looked away, as if focusing on something at the back of the room.

   "Jeez, Luna, what did you expect?" Artemis said softly.

   Luna merely shrugged.

   "Now, tell us your side, like you promised."

   "I didn't promise anything," she retorted, jumping off the stool and walking towards the door.

   "Luna!"

   "I never promised you that I would tell you what happened," she paused, glancing over her shoulder, "you just jumped to conclusions."

   "Then what's the point?" Minako whispered, turning to face them again, a hint of unshed tears in her blue eyes, "how can you expect us to change anything if we don't know how the world ended up like this in the first place?"

   "Let me ask you something, Minako-chan," Luna said, almost coldly, what did it feel like out there tonight, knowing you failed?"

   "I - " she faltered, not quite knowing how to answer.

   "That was uncalled for, Luna," Artemis said harshly.

   But she didn't seem to care. "Remember that feeling?" she said, "only now, imagine it ten times as worse, and imagine it lasting for four years."

            They all fell silent then, and it was Artemis who finally spoke.

   "No-one ever said it was your fault, Luna. The other Senshi…"

   "Don't you dare blame them!" Luna shouted suddenly, her eyes filling with tears, "I was the one who was responsible for training them! Oh, it was all well and good for you, swanning around half the world like you were the bee's knees…"

   "Now just a minute…"

   "No, you 'just a minute'. You could have helped, Artemis, but you didn't. You were too busy getting your faces plastered all over the 'papers and making childish videogames. Whatever happened to teamwork, Artemis? What happened to _partnership_?"

   "It was hard on us too, Luna," he said quietly.

   "Oh, I bet it was," she hissed, "the magnificent Sailor V? Give me a break."

   "That's enough!" Minako snapped suddenly, "is that the only reason you led us here? To make fun of us? To try and make us feel guilty for something none of us could prevent?" She stared directly at Luna eyes blazing. "Well, if that's all you're going to do, you can forget it. Come on Artemis, we don't need this."

            With a final, icy glance at Luna, she marched towards the door, her fists balled at her sides. Artemis hesitated, as if he half thought she was bluffing, before taking up her lead.

   "Wait!" Luna cried, and then, sounding resigned, "if you want to know what happened, I'll tell you, although there isn't really that much to it."

   Minako folded her arms across her chest. "We're listening," she said.


End file.
